


Book One: Birth - From the Cries of Babes

by RaTheSunKing



Series: Avatar: On The Edge Of The World [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Continuation, Earth Kingdom (Avatar), Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:01:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27482416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaTheSunKing/pseuds/RaTheSunKing
Summary: A group of strangers travel to a poor town nestled in the Great Divide.
Series: Avatar: On The Edge Of The World [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2008255
Kudos: 1





	Book One: Birth - From the Cries of Babes

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first piece of creative writing I've published so any feedback is more than welcome. I'm unsure about if the length should be divided into chapters or not so please let me know in a comment what you think about it.

The town of Vishvarl was cramped and squeezed into the bottom of The Great Divide, the largest canyon in the entire Earth Kingdom. It was known for exactly two things. Its river fishing, which to be fair was quite excellent with a wide variety of CrayCatfish, EelTrout, and Green SwallowSalmon; which were sought after by Republic city chefs to serve to men and women who had more money than sense. Yet that reputation had caused the town to never be known in the public lexicon as anything but ‘Fishbarrel.’

The second thing Vishvarl was known for was the state of its soil and fields, of which it could be said there were some. That anyone would farm in an area so remote and surrounded by barren cliffs was beyond most people, however the locals knew better. Several smaller rivers across the canyons all fed towards the area and in doing so flooded it with the perfect soil to seed. This of course had the secondary effect of making the land so unstable and prone to give way that most of the village’s permanent structures were hammered into the cliffside while local vendors and alehouses served people out of tents designed to be packed up and tucked away at the first sign of rain. Even this didn't stop the torrents of rain which came every few weeks and swept much of what had grown and built away with little warning even during the dry season.

That the locals stayed was a result of the strength of their faith and their lack of other options. Elders told that in farming the ruined land at the end of the canyon they were repairing the damage caused by warring spirits eons ago and in turn would be cared for by what spirits remained. A narrative not disputed by what spirits crossed over into the physical world decades ago and drifted through the town to the awe and appreciation of the eldest and the most devout. And if you disagreed you were welcome to move, feel free to farm on your own if you could find any land worth farming within 40 miles. For a town without even one Satomobile and which was lucky to have enough space to mill grain, that wasn't an option for the richest family in town much less anyone else.

It is this poor town where one day in 236 AG in the 1st month of Summer that a group of wanderers limped into town looking weary and tired. They walked slowly and with what appeared to be exhaustion but if any of the townspeople had looked closer they might have found that they were fit and sweatless under their robes, which while decrepit looking concealed fine cloth in shades of red, blue, orange, and white. Dye’s that were much too expensive for Vishvarl where everyone sewn and hemmed clothes made of cheap brown and green fabrics seriously haggled over by the town’s best merchants once a year at an abbey that took them 4 days to travel to and 2 weeks to carry their goods back where they would be used to supply the town with clothes for the rest of the year.

To begin with it was rare that travelers would come upon their town. The nearest train line was a 40 mile walk away and tourists or spiritual pilgrims to The Great Divide usually visited the widest portion of the valley upriver and crossed with the help of skilled Earthbender guides who managed the journey with relative ease. The only visitors had been Air Acolytes and Nomads on pilgrimage throughout the 4 nations who would camp in the nearby regions and visit mainly to buy food, tell stories of the spirits, and when asked to, bless the births of newborn children. The villagers idling in the market saw them as they entered and remarked that they could be more nomads. Perhaps on another pilgrimage? No, they were thieves fleeing from the law to take what little they had here. No others said, they were spirits, covering their faces so they would not blind the villagers with their ghostly faces. This ridiculous debate was silenced when the tallest among them stepped away from the group and removed her cap as she stooped under the tent posts of the alehouse.

“Evening” she said, her words escaping her in a sigh as she leaned on the bar counter in the cramped little space. “I don’t suppose you have any tea?’ she asked with a pleading almost greedy expression befitting an alcoholic as she wearily drew two coppers from her skirt and placed them in front of the man standing behind the counter. The man looked at the coppers and relaxed, money was something he was familiar with. As he withdrew the coins and readied a cup the woman caught his eye and whispered, “another copper if you splash some gin or whatever you've got in there” winking at him.

One of the woman's companions called over “Don't you dare! She needs to lay off the heavy drink for a few days.” The man chuckled and nodded, dissipating the tension that had surrounded the townspeople since they set eyes on the travelers. There was nothing scary about a few friends having a drink in town, even if they weren't exactly people they knew. But they looked at the visitors as they sat down and saw them not as troublemaking teens or gruff imposing types, but instead a collection of older and middle aged men and women who had already begun to talk amongst themselves quietly about their aching heels and calves, which of course didn't ache in the slightest. The man who ran the alehouse smiled at the nearly 6-foot-tall woman in front of him who was the youngest of her peers and wore her hair in a style he couldn't decide was Fire Nation or Water Tribe. He steeped her tea, slipping a few drops of decent spirit into her cup as he went. When he served her the drink she gave it a sniff, smiled, and slid another copper over the counter as she sipped the beverage. He looked at her and thought she was quite beautiful, her skin was a mix of amber and bronze and her eyes sparkling blue, but her eyelashes looked almost like those of a mover star.

“Traveling?” the man said. Less a question than a statement. He, like the rest of the town, was unused to deceit and took the woman and her companions' appearance as all the evidence he needed.

“For too long... ughhh” the woman groaned out perhaps a bit too loudly but the mistake was missed by the villagers, she quickly added, “One of these idiots got it into their heads that we should make the most of our years left and visit the capitol on foot while we can.” Her head slipped from the hand holding it above the counter and fell almost comically to bang her chin on the countertop.

The man nodded as one of the woman’s companions blew her a raspberry at the comment. He himself wasn’t young anymore and knew the urge to travel and see the world was a part of the pains of aging. Even he had thought of seeing the capital at one point in his life, but there was always another thing that needed taking care of at home. In that way he empathized with the visitors without envy or judgement. “You're at least a day from the nearest train station, maybe more. If you intend to walk the whole way that’ll be the only stop for another few days of hard hiking.”

The woman quietly groaned to herself and gave the man a look of resigned misery. This clearly was not going to be a trip she would enjoy. “Is there an inn in town?” she asked the man. He replied, “I’m afraid not, but you might find room with the farmhouses. Sometimes pilgrims make use of their barns for the night before they move on. If you plan on staying more than a night though you might want to see if you can pay for space with a wealthier family on the cliff sides.” Anymore than a night and they’d risk being swept away if the barns flooded, and they _always_ flooded.

“Thank you very much,” the woman remarked and finished her somewhat boozy-tea. “We’ll try the farmhouses, hopefully we’ll depart in the morning as long as I haven't pulled a muscle somewhere” she snickered. The man chuckled as well and wished them well on their travels as the travelers pulled themselves from their seats with great effort and began walking the length of the town downriver where the fields lay out of sight. The few other patrons of the alehouse returned to their drinks and the few vendors who stuck around returned to their stalls. People returned to their business with comfort and themselves wished the travelers well as they passed. Not a single townsperson thought anything odd of the travelers, indeed they thought they might even be an amicable company should they come back through town on their return, which in turn was exactly what the travelers wanted them to think. After all they had their excuse for being there, and more importantly they had their excuse to go to their true destination, a certain farmhouse. Perhaps at that moment in time, the most important farmhouse in the world.

\-----------

Suyu and Priha had lived in Vishvarl all their lives. Before them their parents had lived there, and before them their parents. The two’s match had been approved by their families the year they both turned 20 and both counted the day as one of the happiest of their lives. They settled on a fringe of disused land near a canyon basin that provided ample water and fish, although was always one of the first to flood in the rain. They lived in a modest cliff house they shared with their two children Krima and Usnar but would soon need expanding. The love they shared had most recently overflowed into their third child born 15 days prior. Which was why Suyu had spent the last week building new space into their home in between tending to his wife and watching his children make a mess of their most recent harvest. He chuckled to himself as he watched them follow his instructions to cleave grain, corn, and oats and bundle them tightly, only to chuck them haphazardly into the barn with no rhyme or reason. He smiled at his beautiful children even as he knew he’d have to cajole them into sorting and setting it right later. It was as he looked out on them in the middle of nailing another board into place that he saw a group of travelers wandering down the road. He frowned, unused to strangers and called his children to fetch his wife some water while she was in bed. He swung himself down from the cliff side and was greeted by a tall woman with hair tied in a style he didn’t quite recognize.

“Hello sir, I was wondering if we might bother to ask you for room for the night, we’re traveling on foot to Ba Sing Se and we’re hoping to rest before continuing on.” said the woman matter of factly. She was kind, almost even considerate in her voice, however it almost seemed like she assumed, no knew, that he'd say yes.

Suyu hesitated, in truth he hated to deny hospitality to anyone, even strangers but with his wife bedridden and a newborn in the house he felt the need to turn them away.

The woman saw him hesitate and said, “Of course we’d be happy to compensate you for your trouble. We’d happily pay you a hundred yuan’s apiece, or in coppers and silvers if you’d prefer?”

Suyu stopped calculating, a hundred yuan’s was a third of what his family made in a year and 5 times that for the party would be enough that his family would be able to pay off debt for new clothes and put down the money to purchase food and equipment for 6 months besides. Still he felt uneasy, that amount of money was nearly unheard of in these parts and he had learned long ago to always look a gift ostrich-horse in the mouth.

The woman saw this too and smiled, “We swear we're not here to hurt you or steal, and we’ll help your children fix that mess in the barn too” she said with a knowing look, having seen the open barn and the bags of grain strewn across the floor.

Suyu sighed and nodded his head giving a small smile, “Of course, thank you for your help.” He leaned back, “Anyone willing to help with work is always welcome in my home.”

The two bowed to each other slightly and got to work, and through the woman’s companions sighed inwardly at the idea of sorting through children’s messes they set to work with ease and worked without rest until the evening turned to twilight.

\-----

That night Priha insisted she was well recovered enough to serve the meal and so they all gathered around an Earthen stove hefted out of the house by Usnar with special care and the little skill with Earthbending he had. His mother was simply happy he didn’t drop it on his sister’s foot again like the last time they had family over. With her baby slung in a scarf on her breast she stewed ingredients together into a vegetable stew while the baby nursed, and the moment he was done he promptly fell deep asleep as Priha served the rest of her family and their guests. One of the men kept eyeing her as she nursed her son and kept doing so until she shot him an angry look that the rest of the family had learned to fear while another of his companions bumped him on the head for staring. The man kept silent for the rest of the meal, but didn’t seem sheepish for his actions, rather as if he were almost morose and sad and kept his eyes on his bowl.

As they reached the bottom of their bowls Priha spoke up asking, “Why on Earth is your group to reach Ba Sing Se on foot in this day and age?” perhaps a rude question but she was still irritated with the man from earlier, which in turn made her irritated with the group as a whole as she began silently counting the minutes till they’re meal was finished

“Actually, we aren't headed for Ba Sing Se” said one of the women quite abruptly, having not spoken while they’d eaten earlier. Priha eyed her wearily, seeing her short brown hair tinged with grey and her scarf and hood drawn over her head. “We actually came to see your family tonight on important business.”

“I’m sorry?” Priha said not sure if she’d heard the shorter woman correctly. “As far as I know we have no outstanding debt, no quarrel in another town?” she said defensively now.

Suyu hurried to agree, “We have no important business with anyone” he said with a slight bit of fear in his voice at such an unexpected development and what he might have invited into his home. “I think you are mistaken. You gave your word not to cause trouble and I expect you to hold to that.” he spoke with a hint of anger in his voice now.

“I’m afraid that that's not necessarily true.” said the tall woman as she drew off her cap “We swore not to harm or steal from you and we hold ourselves to that,” putting a graver look on her features “But I’m afraid that it is imperative that we speak to you tonight”

Priha clutched the babe closer to her chest while Suyu and even Krima and Usnar began to stand until the remaining four men and women removed their hoods. Two of them were far older than she’d originally thought, their grey hair turning almost completely white as it reached their crowns and both wearing silver collars with some sort of flowered pattern hammered into the metal. It was the other two however that drew her full attention as their hoods fell back to reveal blue arrows tattooed on their scalps and Priha knew that if she examined their hands and feet, she’d find the same arrows there for even here at the bottom of The Great Divide they knew of the return of the highest spiritual authority in the land when the Great Avatar Korra brought the Air Nomads back from extinction. Priha and Suyu went from fear to submission in a heartbeat and bowed deeply to the ground, tugging on their children’s sleeves to do the same though they were too young to understand.

“Please rise” said the same short haired woman from before as Priha glanced upward seeing grey fleck both her and the other Air Nomad’s hair. “We didn’t mean to disturb you.” said her fellow Nomad “You’ve already shown us great hospitality tonight and it would be terrible form to put you on your knees after that.” as he cracked a sheepish grin.

Suyu and Priha looked at one another as they stood up, still nervous despite the efforts of the tattooed man to put them at ease. Both knew that such tattoos were granted only to masters among the Air Nomads and even today in the spring of the Air nations revival there were only so few who’ve earned that honor.

“Perhaps we should discuss this privately” said the man that had eyed Priha earlier as he nodded to the children. Who of course had never heard something so insulting in their lives. Krima threatened to pull her hair out if she wasn’t allowed to stay and Usnar planted himself on the spot and refused to budge an inch. As Suyu collected the children the tall woman took pity on him and said to no one in particular “How much do you think fabric will go for this year? I reckon 14 coppers a meter but Jinora here thinks it’ll be 12.”

This had the desired effect on the children who immediately groaned and trudged back to their room. For nothing was less interesting to them than the combination of math, clothes shopping, and something that wouldn't happen for another 5 months when the merchants headed East.

It had a very different effect on Suyu who froze on the spot, Priha too was stunned upon hearing the name of one of their guests. After all, Abbot Jinora was the granddaughter of Avatar Aang, perhaps the most enlightened person in the world today and who helped Avatar Korra save the world from spiritual annihilation. Even though Suyu and Priha weren't especially devout they knew that Abbot Jinora was possibly the most spiritual person on the planet apart from the Avatar herself.

Recovering himself Suyu reached for the baby, intending to follow his children inside when the other traveler wearing a silver collar, a woman with thick glasses, several wrinkles, and the whitest hair of the group which marked her as eldest motioned and said “Perhaps not.” nodding to the babe.

Suyu perplexed, and to be honest a little frightened, returned the baby to his wife and took his original seat. “Excuse me elders” he said nervously eyeing Jinora, “but why are you here?”

Jinora smiled, “First I think introductions will make things easier, honest ones this time.” She stood and bowed to the waist. “I am Jinora, Abbot of the Eastern Air Temple, this is my brother, Abbot Meelo of the Northern Air Temple.” She gestured to her brother who rose and bowed the same, abit with a look that showed him trying to stifle a laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Priha and Suyu were awestruck, in front of them were not only two of the most spiritual people in the world, but also the grandchildren of Avatar Aang here in the flesh.

Next the elderly woman from earlier rose and bowed, “My name is Wan Fa and the crotchety man beside me is Seng Ha,” she gestured to the old man who continued to look morose, as if he had not even heard her introduction. “We are grandmasters of the White Lotus, a secret society which served the past Avatar and has worked to spread knowledge across the globe.”

Suyu recognized the name slightly, he remembered a group with that name having helped raise the last Avatar, but he assumed they were some small militia or armed force. He knew they protected Avatar Korra in her childhood but since then no one had heard the name again, frankly the world thought they’d disappeared back into the shadows they came from.

Finally, the tall woman who seemed to lead the group rose and bowed, “My name is Yasuko, Avatar Korra is my mother.” and sat back down quietly.

If the couple had been shocked before they were now fully astonished. For the daughter of the Avatar herself to be in their presence was perhaps the honor of a lifetime. To them, and indeed to any member of the four nations, to meet the Avatar was a brush with the most highest holiness. To meet the direct descendant of a person some thought of as higher than the Earth King himself was not something the two thought would ever occur to them, their children, or even their descendants for a hundred generations.

Yasuko looked at their faces and pressed forward, “We apologize for lying but we had no choice,” she locked eyes with Priha “I'm afraid the business we attend to here will shape the world to come.”

Priha closed her mouth which had been hanging open for the past minute and looked over at her husband who still looked as if he’d been hit on his head and struck dumb. She sighed inwardly, resolved herself, and spoke. “It is our honor to assist such honored individuals like yourselves, how can we help you?”

Yasuko hesitated and said, “I’m afraid that's where it gets more difficult.” She looked shy, almost ashamed as her eyes darted across the room before she was interrupted by a cry coming from Priha’s breast.

Priha’s babe had woken up and woken up **_hungry_ **. Priha rocked him slightly before guiding him back to his meal, but not before he looked up and around the room, as if he was curious about the people around him for the first time. He and Yasuko stared at each other, one of them drowsily oblivious, the other suddenly painfully aware of what she was about to do, until Priha pulled him back to her chest and settled him comfortably. When Priha looked up she thought the giant woman had aged twenty years from the expression on her face matching that of the white-haired gentleman on her left.

Yasuko looked at the child for another beat and spoke to the couple, “My mother Avatar Korra died two weeks ago.” she said as Priha and Suyu’s eyes shot wide. “We’ve scryed the clouds and bones, listened to the heartbeat of volcanoes, and read the lights in the skies of the North and South. They all lead us here, and there's only one test left.” she said as she drew something out of her shirt and set it on the table.

All of a sudden Priha’s baby let out a loud cry and kept crying, she held him tightly, but he wrestled an arm free of his swaddling and reached out for the toy Yasuko had placed on the table. An innocuous grey toy which Yasuko then picked up and passed to Priha. She rocked her baby as she waved the toy in front of him, watching as he stopped crying only to laugh and reach for the small clay turtle with an amount of mirth and joy only a child could have. She smiled as his joy and fixed that smile in place as she processed what had just occurred, and the dawning reason why these people had come here.

Yasuko paused for a long time before speaking very quietly. “What’s his name?” she asked.

Priha looked at her baby for a long time before saying in the same quiet she heard from Yasuko. “You won't take him from me, from us, from his family” she said, still looking at her child. “You may be in danger if you stay with him,” said the old grandmaster, still wearing the same solemn and sad expression as before. “I don't care,” Priha said, still staring into her son's eyes, “He’s my baby.” before mustering every ounce of strength she could in the hope that her words, her only chance now to save her child, would cut deeper, “I will not let him grow up without his family.” feeling Suyu, still catching up on the implications of tonight, draw his arm around her.

Seng Ha did not waver, stating plainly in the same monotonous tone he’d used all night, “We will not take your son from you. That choice can never be anything but his.”

Priha thought long and hard about that answer and knew for the rest of her life it would keep her awake into the dead of night.

She said perhaps the only thing she could. “We’ve named him Praha.”

\----------

It was Krima who was the wiser of the two, and so it was her who finally figured out halfway back to the house that the tall old lady might not have been telling the truth. But Krima was also blessed with guile alongside her intelligence and so she waited until she and Usnar were tucked in bed and her parents laid down to sleep with little Praha before she roused her brother. In the space of a few seconds they were silently out the door and creeping along the cliffside next to their house. Without exchanging so much as a word they slid down to the roof of the barn where the older men and women were quietly bickering in a circle around the barn’s sole lantern.

“Are you sure you can cover the trips in and out of town?” said Jinora in a whisper so low it was little more than a vibration. Even Usnar with his gigantic ears had to crane to hear the rest of her words. “Shifting nomad routes through the village is easy enough but shadowing groups like ours and whoever the child chooses as a bending tutor is another thing entirely.” She said in the same muted but purposeful tone of voice.

“It will be done.” said Seng Ha, slightly louder but still with caution. “Yasuko and I can use the fishermen. I’ll do what I can to drive up EelTrout demand while she builds a small, but _busy_ fishing company that can do business with Ba Sing Se and Omashu. All we need are the refrigerated trucks my company is using at the ports.”

Jinora eyed Yasuko who nodded, “We’ll bring security and visitors with the trucks. They’ll have to share space with the fish, but no one will suspect anything. The town’ll be a literal smuggler’s fishbarrel, it won’t always be pretty, but it will work.”

Meelo made a giggle entirely unbefitting of his age, “You’re ignoring the fact that any discount sage with a set of penny sticks will start casting as soon as they find out Avatar Korra’s dead. They don’t need Seng Ha to find the boy like we did to hunt him. Then the world gets tipped off to what we’re doing here in a hurry unless we bring White Lotus troops and Peacekeeper Nomads in quick.” he said before lying flat to the floor as if that was the end of the subject.

Before Jinora could speak, Wan Fa interjected, “No, the White Lotus will not sponsor more open troops.” in one of her only declarations of the night her voice rising “Our retreat from the shadows is what spawned the Red Lotus, and we refuse to empower anymore radicals to action under our mantle Avatar or no!”

“In any case,” Jinora said quickly, trying her best to defuse what Meelo had lit in the elderly woman, “We’ll have to hope that our meeting of the Avatar constitutes a claim. I’ll consult with as many spirits as I can and ask them to help cover our tracks if need be. In the meantime, we can make an announcement of Korra’s passing and the new Avatar’s discovery while keeping details vague.” before looking at Yasuko. “It’ll cause a panic but if we spend what political capital we have we should be able to weather it.”

“Make the world think we assassinated the Avatar just to keep the boy in a dead village in the middle of nowhere?” Meelo asked, his question rising past a whisper, although his tone more incredulous than angry. “They will think of us murderers and conspirators! The world is already on edge. If we say this now and hide what has happened we risk wrecking things even further. Besides if the child is anything like Korra he’ll need masters before he's six and makes the canyon walls fall.”

“No” said Yasuko, “My mother always felt the cage her mentors put around her till she turned sixteen kept her from the world she was supposed to protect. How can we give the child good counsel if ours is the only voice he hears?” She looked from one Airbender sibling to another, “Your Grandfather would agree too, he fled the Air temples rather than be separated from his family.” holding Meelo’s gaze as she spoke. “We cannot repeat that mistake and trigger another hundred years of chaos and war.” She spoke fervently now. “What's more my mother did not want her death to trigger more rash action and conflict. If we don’t handle this properly that is exactly what they’ll do. The nations are itching for war and will jump at any excuse to set it off.” She reached out and held Meelo’s hand as best she could. “I know you miss her, and I know you hate it, but she knew what she was doing when she went out into that night.” She said as her voice almost revealed a quiver.

Meelo eyed each of them in turn before facing Wan Fa who said, “I know it's a risk Meelo, but if we don’t we might end up teaching the boy fear and fear alone.” his voice almost broke as he muttered “We place a terrible burden on the boy. If he is taken or pawned, we could lose him early and set the cycle back another generation.” She folded her hands across her lap “This is the best way to keep him safe.”

Meelo saw his was the only dissent and pulled his hand away from Yasuko’s before he rolled over with a shrug and a barely audible raspberry that still managed to stir a breeze through the entire barn. “Fine,” he said sullenly “I’ll play my part, but I want you to know I still disapprove.”

Jinora gave him a quizzical brow raise before resuming “So we have a plan, keep him here, keep him safe, and keep him unknown. We’ll send in a few skilled individuals to keep him safe and some to start teaching him.” She gave Yasuko a look and said, “We are certain?”

Yasuko looked right back and without missing a beat replied, “He’s a different person but I don’t mistake my mother’s face.” She sighed almost wistfully, “I can tell already he’ll have her hair and jaw; his eyes are changed but her brow is still there along with a good part of her nose.” She laughed with a wry smile, “We’ll have to take him to visit her someday.”

And just like that Krima gave Usnar’s sleeve a tug and the two of them crept back along the cliff side. Up through their window and padded to their beds on the balls of their feet deep in thought. The only thing that broke the silence was Usnar’s not-a-question, said in the scared but resolute voice of a child determined to hold his breath until his mother let him go out and play. “We still love him no matter what, right?” Krima let out an exasperated grunt and said, “Of course we do dummy. Just don’t tell him he’ll get a swole head.” And the two of them drifted off to sleep quicker than a TurtleDuckling.

Of course, both were unaware that their mother had been listening at the door since she realized they’d escaped while getting up to use the bathroom. They were already sound asleep when Priha gave herself a small smile and wandered back to bed. As such, the two of them didn’t know how much their mischief eased their mother’s heart and how tightly she would hold that memory close in the coming days.


End file.
